Decarbonisation of the fishing fleet in the Mediterranean and Black Sea
“Framework Contract for the provision of scientific advice for the Mediterranean and the Black Sea” FRAMEWORK CONTRACT – EASME/EMFF/2020/OP/0021
Duration: 01/01/2024 – 10/03/2026
The transition towards climate neutrality represents a crucial challenge for the fishing sector, which is currently heavily affected by fuel price volatility and the urgent need to reduce emissions. In this context, the DecarbonyT project promotes technological innovation in the Mediterranean and Black Seas, focusing on the optimization of trawling gear to combine environmental sustainability with economic profitability.
Objectives
The project aims to define a strategic direction for the improvement of high-potential fishing fleets. The central purpose is to determine the actual impact of using optimized trawling gears on fuel reduction, thereby fostering a concrete and measurable decarbonization pathway.
To achieve these goals, the project is organized into a series of Subtasks divided into a management and coordination Task (Task 0) and four technical Tasks (Task 1-4) that are closely interconnected:
Task 1 - Consolidation and Diagnosis: analysis of existing knowledge on energy consumption and technological solutions, including energy audits to establish baselines for specific area/gear combinations;
Task 2 - Monitoring: collection of new, detailed data by fishery (métier);
Task 3 - Decision Support: analysis of the gathered data to provide operators with a guide for assessing the practical consequences—particularly economic ones—of adopting various energy efficiency solutions;
Task 4 - Dissemination: stakeholder engagement and communication of project results.
Website: https://decarbonyt.eu/
Coordinator: National Research Council (CNR) – Italia
SZN Principal Investigator: Maria Cristina Mangano
Partners:
Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn (SZN) – Italy
AquaBioTech Group (ABT) – Malta
Consortium for the Inter-University Centre of Marine Biology and Applied Ecology (CIBM) – Italy
COISPA Foundation (COISPA) – Italy
National Inter-University Consortium for Marine Science (CONISMA) – Italy
Fisheries Research Institute (FRI) – Greece
Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR) – Greece
Institute of Marine Science – Spanish National Research Council (ICM-CSIC) – Spain
Institute of Oceanography - Spanish National Research Council (IEO-CSIC) – Spain
Institute of Oceanology – Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IO-BAS) – Bulgaria
Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries (IOF) – Croatia
National Institute for Marine Research and Development (NIMRD) – Romania
Nisea Società Cooperativa (NISEA) – Italy
University of Thessaly (UTH) – Greece
WWF Mediterranean (WWF) – Italy
Differens Digital, Marketing, Innovation - Italy
